It is a reasonable thing concerning West Papua development to reach a better future. Unfortunately, it is not a simple thing in many ways. Numerous aspects affect this particular matter of the province. It includes the complicacy of the political agenda concerning the region itself. Nevertheless, the locals and many supporting parties never stop boosting and improving the development of the area. The aim is to improve everything in the vicinity, especially the life of the locals.
When it comes to the development of a place, it always comes to the economic field. In this case, the West Papua economic development is not the same as other provinces of Indonesia. It is reasonable because the nation itself is a vast archipelago. Many seas separate numerous islands of the country. Of course, it affects the level of development in each province. Because West Papua is the farthest to the East, it is the most-tricky spot to follow other areas.
The Push from the Government of Indonesia
Of course, the government comes with some plans for the better development of the area. It focuses mainly on the welfare development of the locals. It is pivot to boost the economic state of the province at first. In the end, it affects other aspects within the area itself. Unfortunately, it is not an easy sail at all. There are other things that the government of Indonesia needs to handle concerning West Papua. It eventually prevents the push for the development of the West Papua economy.
There are two official decisions from the President of Indonesia to boost the economic development of the province. Both of them came in 2020 as Presidential Instruction and Presidential Decree. The first one focuses on the welfare acceleration for the region. The other one manages the integrated coordination team for that program. Nevertheless, there is no specific program that concerns education in West Papua. Education is pivotal in developing a region into a better state.
Jokowi’s Approaches to Escalating the Development in Papua
Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has visited Papua eight times since he becomes the President of Republic Indonesia. It shows the commitment of the government of Indonesia to develop Papua, the easternmost region of the country. Not only president, the Deputy Vice of the Head of Presidential Staff, Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, also expressed his strong commitment to developing Papua through a one-day seminar in Jakarta, bringing the idea ‘Papua in The Spotlight: The Holistic Approach for Papua’ on December 28, 2017.
According to Pramodhawardani, Jokowi has sent out an instruction to the 25 ministers under his government to speed up the social development in Papua and West Papua province. The President Instruction November 9/2017 in regards to the Acceleration of Prosperity Development in Papua and West Papua has been signed by Jokowi on December 11, 2017. In order to reach the goals, every Minister has their own tasks in order to put the commitment into action.
The Minister of National Development Planning has been assigned to synergy the collation of Papua and West Papua development movement. His role includes deciding the Annual Action Plan of the Acceleration Program of Prosperity Development in Papua and West Papua until 2019, whereas the budget for this program coming from among others the ministry expenditure and village budget.
The Finance Minister has been assigned to find the unit cost of the ministry expenditure to accelerate the prosperity development in Papua. While the Minister of Communication and Informatics received a mandate to accelerate the equipping of communication and information technology infrastructure network to support the remote health service and digital base education service, also others public service for the people of Papua and West Papua.
Furthermore, the Minister of Social Affairs was instructed to ensure the effectiveness of policy implantation related to society social security and Program Keluarga Harapan. President Joko Widodo has also emphasized that the development in Papua is not only about infrastructure but also focusing on the development of its people.
